First day of school!

Here's Emma ready to head off to her first day of school... okay, not so sure it qualifies as first day of school since it's one morning a week and I stay for the whole thing, but close enough!lol

Recipes

Someone was just asking me for the muffin recipe I'd posted about somewhere along the way on the blog so I thought I'd post it for all since it's so yummy. I also just got a potato salad recipe from another friend which we also all love so thought I'd post that too. Here goes:

Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

2/3 cup sugar
3 TBSP vegetable oil
3 TBSP peanut butter
1 large banana, mashed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup 2% plain yogurt
3 TBSP semi sweet chocolate chips (the mini size works best)

Mix all ingredients, pour info muffin cups, bake 15-18 minutes at 375.

I usually triple the recipe, these go quickly!!


Red Potato Salad

2 3/4 lbs of red potatoes, cut in one inch squares (peels on, baby red potatoes work great)
1 red onion
5 slices of crispy bacon, finely chopped
3/4 cup mayo
3/4 cup plain yogurt
3 green onions, finely chopped
Salt and Pepper

Boil potatoes, let cool, mix in other ingredients, let sit in fridge at least 2 hours before serving.

Go Thomas Go!

Just a little brag. They had a sports day at Thomas' school yesterday and they had various activities for the kids to try out. Thomas beat the previous Junior (Grades 1-3) basketball record of 9 by making 10 baskets in 60 seconds. :-)

These boots were made for walking!

A lot of our girls seem to like wearing their siblings or parents' shoes. Emma takes it one step further!! Here she is wearing a big pair of rubber boots we got for Thomas' camp sleepover this summer...the boots are big on Thomas, so you can see that they fit Emma quite well!lol And yes, I know, she could use a haircut... we just can't decide what we want to do with her hair so for now, we're going for the messy look!lol

Parade of Homes - Week 7

This week, Shannon is looking for us to post "bonus rooms", basically any room that hasn't been seen yet. Well, most of our "not as yet seen" rooms will remain that way as they're more junk rooms than anything else!lol I have some old pics of the playroom though, so I thought that' s what I'd use this week. This is our basement TV/playroom. It's changed a bit since these pics were taken - the computer has moved upstairs and we've had built in bookshelves installed all along the walls behind the couch for Gary's books - his library used to be Emma's room. This was how it looked "before Emma", now there's a ton of baby stuff, not to mention a treadmill, filling the room. I'd take pictures as it looks today but it would take me a week to clean the room up first so that's not happening!lol

TV/toy storage area

Sitting area, which one of our cats is taking advantage of. If you've seen other pictures of our home, you might have noticed that I love red. So, this is my BIG red sectional sofa... the fact that it's dark enough so that the kids can spill pretty much anything on it without it showing is a bonus!lol

Our other cat (there are 2 cats, they're both black and white though so they look like the same one unless you look closely!lol) is enjoying the window view - they like sitting in that window since it's at ground level and they can "chase" the squirrels more easily than the upstairs windows!lol

What changes one year brings!

I got this idea from Ruby's mama who posted pics of Ruby with her referral pic on her one year anniversary...we're a few days late, but I thought it was a great idea so I copied it. Here are Thomas and Emma, holding Emma's referral pics which we got on September 3, 2005. We all fell in love with her immediately. Our agency called to say they were e-mailing the pictures and we all ran to the computer and it seemed to take forever for her little face to pop up, bit by bit, second by second. She was gorgeous, and just looked so very familiar from the very first moment we three saw her beautiful face.

Ummm...

It looks like Emma's not too sure what to make of this particular park bench!lol

What do you want Emma?

Look at Emma, what is she trying to get her hands on...she's on her tippy toes as far as humanly possible!
C'mon folks, this is Emma, you knew it had to be food related!!lol Yup, she's trying to steal (borrow?) Thomas' slice of chocolate banana cake. When we were visiting my family last month, my father nicknamed Emma "Seagull"... anytime anyone had food she'd run at them with her mouth wide open yelling "food" or "eat"!!lol Subtlety is her middle name!lol

What's Emma doing?

We're not big on video games here...we don't have any of the standards like Xbox and such. Anyhow, last week I was at TRU and saw this cheap game that you attach to your TV and it was PacMan - the one video game I loved as a teenager. Anyhow, we picked it up and Thomas and I have been playing (I can get to the 6th screen so far!lol) and Emma insists on having her turn as well!lol

Dresses everywhere!

Gary and I had a date night this weekend and we went out to dinner and a movie. Well, the movie was at a mall and we got there early so we - okay I - did a little shopping at a new childrens clothing store. Emma now has all the dresses she'll need for fall and winter! Have you noticed I'm not much of a "frilly dress" kind of gal... I like "clean lines" in everything from clothes to architecture!lol

Emma and Rebecca

We've all been so busy, it's been a few weeks since Emma and Rebecca got together. Here they are enjoying a beautiful end of summer day.

Cutie Emma

Just a cute picture of Emma. :-)

Parade of Homes - Week 6

This week, Shannon is looking at bedrooms. Here are some bits and pieces of our 4 bedrooms... the rooms were too messy and I didn't have time to clean up, so these are just little snapshots of the neatest parts of some of the rooms. For instance, we do have a dresser in our bedroom, but there's so much junk on it, I wasn't cleaning it for the picture, nor was I sharing what a clutter bug I can be with everyone!lol

This is the little reading nook in our master bedroom.

This is Thomas' room. If you look closely, you'll see that on the floor, he's building a zoo and you see a little bit of it here... there are all kinds of animals, including some aquatic ones in plastic bowls!lol There is currently barely any space to walk in his room as the zoo takes up most of the floor!

This is a little bit of Emma's room, taken before she joined us, so it's quite neat still... if you saw it today, well, it's a different story - I don't think the quilt has actually been in the crib since she started using it - it's always lying beside it, not to mention that she thought the bumpers were useful climbing gear and they've since bitten the dust!lol

This is a picture of our bedroom, Toby the cat is the model. I love our room, it's so soothing and relaxing.

This is a painting on our bedroom wall. It's one of my very favourites. If you're thinking it's a lovely painting of Thomas - you'd be wrong, it's not Thomas, but it sure could be. A couple of years ago, we were in San Francisco. I love art galleries, and wandered into this one gallery. The artist had just dropped off a few paintings, they were just sitting on the floor and I immediately fell in love with this painting. We have a picture of Thomas from a couple of years before this, he's walking on a beach on one of the barrier islands just outside Charleston, South Carolina and I swear this picture is him. I went back a couple of times to look at the painting but left San Francisco without it. I just couldn't get it out of my mind though and a couple of weeks later, I called to find out if it was still available and if they'd ship it to me - it was and they did. :-)

First day of school!

Thomas started school this week. It seems like it was only yesterday that my baby was a baby...he's growing up so fast!! He was perfectly fine with the first day of school, no butterflies or anything, but I was a little emotional. And to add to it, as I was driving him to school, what comes on the radio but Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle"... now come on radio people, don't play that when we're taking our kids to school!! Anyone else reading this blog old enough to know this song??lol Anyhow, I held myself together and he even let me take a picture of him at his desk...soon enough, he won't even let me walk him to class I'm sure!lol

Future gymnast?lol

Emma is now greatly entertained by her attempts, as far as we can tell, to do the splits. This little one has so much personality, she's just hysterical. So here she is attempting the splits, with a piece of naan bread in one hand and blankie in the other - life is good!lol

Off...again!!!

Because apparently having pretty much crossed North America from coast to coast and practically from North to South in the last couple of weeks wasn't enough for us, off we went again a few days ago. Well, I decided I wanted to stay in a cool boutique hotel, not the family based suites hotels that we now most often book these days . The fact is, these suites hotels are the most convenient, but they're not the most interesting. However, it's tough having just one room with kids...what do you do after they're in bed?? I remember once a couple of years ago, we rented one room only and Thomas was in bed by 9:00 and Gary and I were sitting in the bathroom reading!!lolol Anyhow, so Thomas thought this was the coolest room we've ever stayed in because it was on 2 levels. The service was also impeccable - I can't remember feeling this pampered at a hotel in a very long time. It's just the little touches: the plants and orchids were real (I really dislike fake plants... would rather have none than plastic!), we requested a crib for Emma and it was in the room when we arrived (yeah, this should be an obvious one, but trust me, I've had to make many a call and wait for hours for Emma to get a crib at other hotels), there were a bunch of complimentary water bottles in the hotel, as well as a basket full of them by the front door of the hotel so you could pick up some water on your way out exploring; chocolates on the pillows and when the valet brought your car, he referred to you by name, etc... just a bunch of little things, but they just make you feel like they're on the ball at this hotel. Also, it's not a kid based hotel, but the staff went above and beyond and out of their way to speak with the kids and make their stay enjoyable as well. My pics really don't do it justice, but here we go:

Gorgeous and huge bathroom which included a soaker tub and a separate toilet area.

Here is something I don't think we've ever had in a hotel room before - our very own washer and dryer, not to mention all supplies at hand. If I'd known this, I would have packed much lighter!lol

Thomas heading upstairs for a tour.

The main floor living area which included an office area, a TV area, a kitchen area and another bathroom.

Referral

One year ago today, we got our referral for Emma!! I can't believe it's been a year already!! For those of you still in the waiting stages, there are just no words to describe the moment you find out about your child and the first time you see their picture. I felt totally spaced out for days after... I kept joking with Gary that I was as out of it the first few days after we got our referral as I was after I physically gave birth to Thomas years before... becoming a mommy, no matter how, just does that to your brain cells. :-) Also, in the next week or so, we hit another milestone of sorts...Emma will soon have spent more time with us than she has with anyone or anywhere else. :-)

Parade of Homes - Week 5

Here are 2 of our bathrooms. This house is the first one we've had (it's our 3rd house) where we have a master ensuite and I love it. So, love the big tub, love the huge shower, love the double sinks...I'm very much a bath girl and this room is really soothing. Also included is a pic of Thomas and Emma's bathroom. A few years ago, Thomas asked when we were painting the bathroom if we could do a jungle theme... no problem, turned out really neat. :-)

Visiting more family

While visiting my parents, we spent a day driving a couple of hours away to visit my cousin Colette and her family. Thomas wanted to see them again and we wanted them to meet Emma. I spent a good part of my childhood in this little town and it's always lovely to visit again. I grew up surrounded by a bunch of cousins, on the shores of a bay, running freely as kids did (do?) in small towns. My father and his brother married 2 sisters so these cousins (6 of them) in particular are practically siblings and a few other uncles and their families lived there too, so there was a whole bunch of us! :-) Anyhow, the kids loved their day in a small town...there's nothing like it. :-) It's so much more real and relaxing than city life...not that I'd trade city life, but I could definitely spend a few weeks in a small town every summer - maybe we will one day! :-)

Thomas and Emma on the ball swing...they love this thing!

Thomas, Emma and Jenna walking hand in hand on the beach.

Emma running barefoot on the beach... I don't think there's anything she enjoys more... well, put some food in her hand and you've got all bases covered!!lol

Jacob showing Thomas his tree house...cool eh?

Thomas, Emma and Jenna on the beach.

Emma loved the ball swing too!

Thomas and Jenna climbing a tree.

Off we go...again!

Well, a couple of days after our return from California, off we were to a couple of Eastern Canadian provinces to visit my family, just the kids and I. First off, as the queen of overpacking (see October 2005 archives for our China packing...just a tad much eh?lol) I am very proud to say that I travelled with 2 children for 5 days and only packed one small carry on suitcase and a diaper bag. Okay, so we spent most of our time at my parents' house within easy reach of a washer and dryer, but still, major progress for me, Miss Overpacking 2005!!lol Also, see the kids enjoying the pool on a rainy day... you knew Emma would find something to hang off of now didn't you? The kids had a great visit, particularly with my parents and Auntie Susan (SueSue as Emma calls her).